About three months, ago we were introduced to a small startup company, Tie Snug, that was working on a little accessory to prevent a tie from slipping. Today, we want to discuss the issue of slipping tie knots and present you our Tie Snug test results.

The Slipping Knot

Most men who wear ties will have noticed that a tie knot will eventually slip, leaving a little gap between knot and collar that unduly suggests sloppiness. In general, there are a number of factors that influence the slipping of a tie knot.

While shiny ties with little texture slip very easily and quickly, knit ties or ties with a heavily structured silk slip less. Also, your choice of tie knot plays an important role – a regular four in hand knot or a Kelvin knot will slip much faster than, let’s say, a full Windsor knot. In my experience, at the end of a long day, all ties slip. Some less or slower than others, but eventually they all do. Sadly, I am not alone in that matter. Michael Drake told me that he was experiencing the exact same issue, and a few days ago, we received the following email:

Kind sirs,

I am hopeful that you will perhaps be able to enlighten me on a very annoying part of wearing ties. I am not a frequent tie-wearer, often prefering a cravate over a tie (in part due to the matter outlined below), but when I do, I get rather fussy about it. I am perfectly capable of undoing the knot 10 times until it is to my satisfaction, and I always try to ensure that it is dead-centre and straight.

My main problem is however, that the knot always tends to loosen slightly during wear, so a very ugly gap appears between knot and collar, which I detest. This either induces me to frantically inspect myself in any reflecting surface that presents itself to me, thus making me appear completely paranoid, insufferably vain or both, or I end up figdetting my throat area all the time.

I do not want to pull the knot too tight. This makes it rather ugly and gives one the appearance of one of those office slaves who slip the tie over their head in the evening and pull it back on the next day because they can´t do the knot themselves or can´be bothered to. Tie clips, or tie tacks are completely out of the question, unless one could hide them under a waistcoat perhaps. Do you know of any method I can apply to stop my ties from slipping without having to compromise sartorially?

I hope you will be able to resolve this matter for me and I anxiously await your reply.

Sincerely,

Y. R.H., …, the Netherlands

The solution: Tie Snug

Until now, the only way to cope with a slipping tie knot, was to adjust it. However, this is merely reactive, and sadly, there was no real preventive way to deal with matter.

Several weeks ago, we were provided with a Tie Snug, which was supposed to be the solution to our problem – the slipping knot.

At the beginning, I was rather sceptical as to whether a small clip like the tie snug would really work.

Material & Built

As you can see, the Tie Snug consists of two parts. The V-shaped part is made of Sterling Silver that has a matte, grainy surface which provides more grip. The post as well as the clasp are made of stainless steel. Firstly, I was concerned about the little hook underneath the post. I thought it may damage the tie when pulling out the Tie Snug. Luckily, during the entire 4 week testing period, I did not damage a single tie, and as you can imagine, I would never expose my tie collection to any potential hazard.

The Testing

In order to find out whether the Tie Snug would really work, I decided to wear a tie for several hours without the snug and then wear the exact same tie and shirt with the tie snug. Of course, I took pictures of all the stages of wear in order to be able to compare the two results. The ties were worn during the day as well as the evening.

Altogether, I tested various tie materials ranging from printed silk, jacquard silk, knitted silk, linen, wool to cotton and cashmere. Initially, I also tested the ties using a half Windsor knot as well as a four in hand knot. Soon thereafter, I decided to test using only the four in hand knot since that knot was slipping more easily. My thought was, if the tie snug worked with the four in hand knot, it was safe to assume it would work just as fine with any other knots.

Putting the tie snug on can be a little tricky in the very beginning, but I got used to it rather quickly. It is located under the tie knot by your chest, which makes it practically invisible. Before putting the Tie Snug on, it is important to tighten your knot. If you do not do that, it will not work properly. Fortunately, the tie snug comes with a “How To Apply” instruction card. Since it is rather simple, you can forget about the card once you applied it successfully.

The Result

For me, the Tie Snug worked perfectly every time. Once I over-tightened my knot before putting it on, and had to readjust due to the effectiveness of the tie snug. Even after a long day out with lots of movement, the tie knot looked just like it did when I left the house in the morning. Please see the before and after pictures and convince yourself!

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